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Main video page: KA Connect – Building Knowledge

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Nathan Miller strikes again:
I am creating a strange ‘catenary’ surface with Kangaroo and Grasshopper.  I am then feeding the information into an Excel spreadsheet and reconstructing the shape using Adaptive Components via RevitPythonShell.  Note how I am also able to adjust the radius parameter of the pipe members within Revit to reflect the ‘force’ diagram created in Kangaroo.

via
The Proving Ground by Nathan Miller: Revit API: Divided Surfaces and Excel Interop

Now here is something cool – Jon Mirtschin of Geometry Gym has been working on an IFC importer add-in for Revit (my previous post here) (current version 0.0.23 download direct here, or source page here).

What made me go ‘wow’ today was this: using this add-in, you can take an IFC file and import it as a Generic Model Adaptive Component in Revit 2012.  You can select the points and adjust it just like ANY Adaptive Component – but it came from Grasshopper via IFC!

Here is how to do it:

  1. Download and install the add-in
  2. Upon opening Revit 2012, you can see the add-in under External Tools – Geometry Gym IFC Importer
  3. You will need to email Jon to get a license XML file.  Paste that into the appropriate folder.
  4. Now, run the Geometry Gym IFC Importer again.
  5. Download, then select the IFC file that Jon provided today (see below)
  6. Click ‘Proceed’ then wait a bit
  7. The IFC will now appear as a bunch of Adaptive Component instances that you can select and modify!

Here’s the Grasshopper model, and here’s the IFC file.
via
Geometry Gym: Generative Adaptive Component

In fact, there is some serious 3rd party development happening on the Grasshopper to Revit front – check out:
http://www.grasshopper3d.com/group/gh-revit

The License File Parser allows you to easily convert the contents of your Autodesk license file into an easy to read report. Among other pieces of useful information, the report contains the full name of the licensed product, the serial numbers, and the number of seats.

You can upload a *.lic or *.dat file
Go to:
http://www.licenseparser.com/index.html

Heads-up via
Google Translate
of
http://datechpt.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/license-file-parser-visualizador-de.html

Issue

Your stand-alone Autodesk product licenses have become corrupted and you want to know how they can be reset.

Solution

Use the following steps to reset the stand-alone licenses for all Autodesk products (version 2010 or higher):
1. Make sure there is no Autodesk product currently running.  If there is, close the application.
2. Rename the adskflex_00691b00_tsf.data file to adskflex_00691b00_tsf.data.old.  This file can be found at the following locations:

Windows XP
C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataFLEXnet

Vista/Windows 7C:ProgramDataFLEXnet

3. Restart your Autodesk product and go through the activation procedure again.
Note: This file contains all product activations for all 2010 and higher Autodesk products installed on your system.  You will need to re-register these products if this file is renamed/deleted.

via
Autodesk – AutoCAD Services & Support – How to reset your stand-alone Autodesk product licenses

Think of this scenario – you have 5 different Revit projects all linked together in various ways.  You want to ensure that there is some consistency in the way the Plan views appear (possibly because you intend to use Linked Views).

The answer – View Templates 2013 (of course).

First of all, make or open a Template file.  Set up the View Templates in this file.  Then save it, and Transfer Project Standards (View Templates) from this Template into the 5 other project files.

Apply the View Template to the applicable views in each of the 5 projects.

Now, when you want to update the View Template across all 5 projects:

  1. Open the Template file (it could be saved as an RTE or RVT in your project folder, such as View-Templates.rte)
  2. For each project RVT file:  Open it,
  3. Transfer Project Standards from the View-Templates.rte TO the Project file
  4. Overwrite!!!
  5. Rinse and repeat for all 5 project files.
  6. Your View Templates are now synchronised between all the RVT links.
  7. Your Views have automatically been adjusted due to the updated View Template definitions.

There are some traps and limitations with this idea, but I think that it could be powerful if used properly.

Pre-2013 sketch based stairs have the Stair Path bound to the actual Stair element.  In Revit 2013 when using Component Stairs, the Stair Path becomes a separate element.  Think of it as a special Tag for Stairs.  The Stair Path tool is located on the Annotate ribbon:

You can safely delete the path from views where you don’t want to see it.  It seems that these are automatically created in certain Plan views – I’m unsure what the ‘rule’ governing the automatic creation of Stair Paths is, yet.

The Stair Path is a System Family.  You can Duplicate existing Path types to create and customize the Stair Path to your liking:

Also, the Categories related to Stair UP and DOWN text have all been moved to the Annotation Categories in Visibility / Graphics!  You won’t find them under Model – Stairs anymore:

You can learn more at:
Annotating the Stair Path – WikiHelp